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It's the perfect time of year for gingerbread cookies, but what do you do with all that excess ginger? Well, maybe put it in a horse's butt? No, no, don't do that. But some people do. All that and more on this week's history of ginger. Show notes

There was a period of time in the mid to late 1990s when Patton Oswalt spent most of his waking hours indoors. He'd be in a TV writer's room all day, make his way to the movie theater for a film or two, and then hit the stand up stage before going to sleep. Then he'd get up and do it all over again.

His movie obsession was supposed to teach him how to be a filmmaker and create better art, but he found he was missing out on life, and art was no substitute.
Oswalts memoire Silver Screen Fiend: Learning About Life Through and Addiction to Film is out now.
His Emmy winning stand-up comedy special Talking for Clapping can be seen on Netflix.

Photo: ABC/Bob D'Amico

Fresh Off the Boat is the first network sitcom about Asian-Americans in a long time, and that's a big deal. The creative team behind the show, including memoirist Eddie Huang, showrunner Nahnatchka Khan and star Randall Park have publicly grappled with that blessing and burden. How do you retain the specificity of the Tawainese-American experience and provide that to a group of Americans who are hungry for mass-market representation, and also make a show that's big-tent enough to welcome hundreds of millions of Americans who don't know what bao are?

We're joined by Nahnatchka Khan and Randall Park to talk about trying to achieve those goals, how they see their own American experiences, and how to write a sitcom dad who's not dumb.

Fresh Off the Boat airs Tuesday nights at 9/8c on ABC.

Jesse explains how Sly and the Family Stone made a perfect album, even as they slowly disintegrated as a group.

We're one brother short this week, because -- get this -- Travis is a dad! He's on a break for a bit, so we're keeping the good ship MBMBaM afloat in his absence with this best-of episode. There's some good stuff in the 20 episodes included, although "consistent audio quality" is unfortunately not one of them.

Musician Sara Watkins joins Jordan and Jesse for a discussion of the new "shiny legs" meme, Jordan's stay at a hotel hosting Puppet Conf, and Sara's dream holiday craft project. Plus Jordan may or may not enter the Rant Zone to deliver one of his signature rants.

Caution: There is a swear word that was not bleeped in this episode. If you are listening with kids, keep that in mind.

"May It Please The Shorts" and "Amphibious Corpus," taped in front of a live audience at Shea Theater in Turners Falls, MA during the 2016 Tour of Live Justice! Judge John Hodgman and Bailiff Jesse Thorn also catch up with friends of the court, Monte Belmonte and Emily Brewster! Plus, the return of Swift Justice and songs from Zara Bode of The Sweetback Sisters!

Thank you to Jason Fifi and Matthew Tolzman for suggesting this week's case titles! To suggest a title for a future episode, like Judge John Hodgman on Facebook. We regularly put a call for submissions.

This week on a special Halloween episode of One Bad Mother: aaaaaahhhh!!!! Something is hitting you...and it's coming from within the house! Biz and Theresa talk about our toddlers hitting, how much it sucks and what, if anything, we can do about it. Plus Biz embraces her inner witch and there are no babies in Theresa's house! Happy Halloween!

This week Bryan saw the original nasty woman Patti Smith over the weekend with a bunch of heterosensuals and lived to tell the tale, while Erin has a surprising conversation with a local silhouette artist. Also, Texas Representative Brian Babin believes women should be told when they are being nasty. Nasty women vote hunny! And the Log Cabin Republicans have sashayed away from Trump and have decided to not endorse him for president.

It is time that we throw off the tyranny of our fast food oppressors and begin to truly, finally Have It Our Way. Our campaign will be a brutal one, but once our liberty is secure, well -- bah dah bah-bah-bah, We're Lovin' It.